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Is it time to ban helium balloons?

“The scarcity of helium is a really serious issue. I can imagine that in 50 years time our children will be saying, ‘I can’t believe they used such a precious material to fill balloons,’” said the doctor, Peter Wothers.

The non-renewable gas is a necessity in hospitals, where it is used to cool magnets in MRI scanners and mixed with oxygen to allow ill patients and newborn babies to breathe more easily.

Currently, about 75 percent of the world’s helium comes from the United States. Scientists have been unsuccessful in finding a sustainable way of making the gas artificially.

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According to the report on NPR I heard a few weeks back, there is no scarcity of helium as in a decline in it. Quite the contrary, there’s a glut of it, but the government has been trying to sell off its strategic reserves of helium – and get out of the helium business (a holdover from the 30′s and 40′s, blimps and all) and the private market has responded by holding back their own supply, thus driving up prices.

So, whereas one would think greater supply should decrease price, in this case, increased supply is causing price increases as private producers are deciding just to hold on to their helium and/or sell it at a higher price. I guess the point being, gov’t, if you’re going to get rid of your helium, do it more slowly or just not right now.

As helium becomes scarce, the price rises. As the price rises, certain uses for helium will necessarily suffer. As certain uses suffer, less helium is used for these uses. As less helium is used for these uses, the percentage use for other uses increases. Problem solved through normal market forces. I have an idea though that may solve the problem without creating shortages. Increase fracking.

In 1996, the U.S. had proven helium reserves, in such gas well complexes, of about 147 billion standard cubic feet (4.2 billion SCM). At rates of use at that time (72 million SCM per year in the U.S.; see pie chart below) this is enough helium for about 58 years of U.S. use, and less than this (perhaps 80% of the time) at world use rates, although factors in saving and processing impact effective reserve numbers. It is estimated that the resource base for yet-unproven helium in natural gas in the U.S. is 31–53 trillion SCM, about 1000 times the proven reserves…

So, whereas one would think greater supply should decrease price, in this case, increased supply is causing price increases as private producers are deciding just to hold on to their helium and/or sell it at a higher price. I guess the point being, gov’t, if you’re going to get rid of your helium, do it more slowly or just not right now.

Where does all the helium go that leaves the earth? There must be a lot of it in the universe if everything eventually decays into helium and billions of years of decaying has occurred. Maybe that’s the “dark matter” they talk about.

Where does all the helium go that leaves the earth? There must be a lot of it in the universe if everything eventually decays into helium and billions of years of decaying has occurred. Maybe that’s the “dark matter” they talk about.

Buddahpundit on December 12, 2012 at 10:53 PM

When we are talking about the total mass of the universe the Earth doesn’t even register. It’s like trying to weigh a piece of fly shite on a bathroom scale. And the helium that escapes the Earth eventually is captured by some celestial body with gravity greater than ours.

I was talking about everything in the universe decaying into helium. There must be a lot of it.

Buddahpundit on December 12, 2012 at 11:27 PM

Ignoring decay there was always a lot of helium in the universe if we accept the Big Bang theory. After the universe cooled enough so matter could be formed the only two elements to be formed were hydrogen and helium. It is currently estimated that the amount of helium in the universe (measured not by mass, but by the number of atoms relative to other elements) is 24% of all matter (not counting dark matter). Hydrogen makes up 73.9%. The remaining 2.1% are all the other elements combined with oxygen third on the list at 1.04%. So when we look at this way there is just about nothing left that can decay into helium.